Genesis of Eden

Chernobyl

And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great
star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon
the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part
of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters,
because they were made bitter. Rev 8:10

This article contains pictures from the original incident
and commentary from:Ten Years of the Chernobyl Era, Yuri Sheerbak Sci Am Apr
96

The total amount of radioactivity released will never be known,
but the official Soviet figure of 90 million curies represents
a minimum. Other estimates suggest that the total might have been
several times higher. It is fair to say that in terms of the amount
of radioactive fallout-though not, of course, the heat and blast
effects-the accident was comaparable to a medium-size nuclear
strike. In the immediate aftermath of the explosion and fire,
187 people fell ill from acute radiation sickness; 31 of these
died.

After the fire

Most of these early casualties were firefighters who combated
the blaze. The destroyed reactor liberated hundreds of times more
radiation than was produced by the atomic bombings of Hroshima
and Nagasaki. The intensity of gamma radiation on the site of
the power plant reached more than 100 roentgens an hour. This
level produces in an hour doses hundreds of times the maximum
dose the International Commission on Radiological Protection recommends
for members of the public a year. On the roof of the destroyed
reactor building, radiation levels reached a frightening 100,000
roentgens an hour. The human dimensions of the tragedy are vast
and heartbreaking. At the time of the accident, I was working
as a medical researcher at the Institute of Epiderniology and
Infectious Diseases in Kiev, some 60 miles from the Chomobyl plant.
Sometime on April 26 a friend told me that people had been arriving
at hospitals for treatment of burns sustained in an accident at
the plant, but we had no idea of its seriousness. There was little
official news during the next few days, and what there was suggested
the danger was not great. The authorities jammed most foreign
broadcasts, although we could listen as Swedish radio reported
the detection of high levels of radioactivity in that country
and elsewhere. I and some other physicians decided to drive toward
the accident site to investigate and help as we could. We set
off cheerfully enough, but as we got closer we started to see
signs of mass panic. People with connections to officialdom had
used their influence to send children away by air and rail. Others
without special connections were waiting in long lines for tickets
or occasionally storming trains to try to escape. Families had
become split up. The only comparable social upheaval I had seen
was during a cholera epidemic. Already many workers from the plant
had been hospitalized. The distribution of the fallout was extremely
patchy. One corner of a field might be highly dangerous, while
just a few yards away levels seemed low. Nevertheless, huge areas
were affected. Although iodine 131 has a half-life of only eight
days, it caused large radiation exposures during the weeks immediately
following the accident. Strontium 90 and cesium 137, on the other
hand, are more persistent. Scientists believe it is the cesium
that will account for the largest radiation doses in the long
run. All told, well over 260,000 square kilometers of territory
in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus still have more than one curie
per square kilometer of contamination with cesium 137. At this
level, annual health checks for radiation effects are advised
for residents. In my own country of Ukraine, the total area with
this level of contamination exceeds 35,000 square kilometers-more
than 5 percent of the nation's total area. Most of this, 26,000
square kilometers, is arable land. In the worst affected areas
there are restrictions on the use of crops, but less contaminated
districts are still under cultivation. The heavily contaminated
parts of Ukraine constitute 13 administrative regions (oblasts).
In these oblasts are 1,300 towns and villages with a total population
of 2.6 million, including 700,000 children. Within about 10 days
of the accident, 135,000 people living in the worst-affected areas
had left their homes; by now the total has reached 167,000.

Fallout plume - Day 2

Multiple illnesses

The medical consequences are, of course, the most serious.
Some 30,000 people have fallen ill among the 400,000 workers who
toiled as "liquidators," burying the most dangerous
wastes and constructing a special building around the ruined reactor
that is universally referred to as "the sarcophagus. "
Of these sick people, about 5,000 are now too ill to work.

The spread a few days later

It is hard to know, even approximately, how many people have
already died as a result of the accident. Pop ulations have been
greatly disrupted, and children have been sent away from some
areas. By comparing mortal ity rates before and after the accident,
the environmen tal organization Greenpeace Ukraine has estimated
a to tal of 32,000 deaths. There are other estimates that are
higher, and some that are lower, but I believe a figure in this
range is defensible. Some, perhaps many, of these deaths may be
the result of the immense psychological stress experienced by
those living E in the contaminated region. One medical survey
of a large group of liquidators, carried out by researchers in
Kiev led by Sergei Komissarenko, has found that most of the sample
were suffering from a constellation of symptoms that together
seem to define a new medical syndrome. The symptoms include fatigue,
apathy and a decreased number of "natural killer" cells
in the blood. Natural killer cells, a type of white blood cell,
can kill the cells of tumors and virus-infected cells. A reduction
in their number, therefore, suppresses the immune system. Some
have dubbed this syndrome "Chornobyl AIDS." Besides
having increased rates of leukemia and malignant tumors, people
with this syndrome are susceptible to more severe forms of cardiac
conditions as wefl as common infections such as bronchitis, tonsillitis
and pneumonia. As a consequence of inhaling aerosols containing
iodine 131 immediately after the accidt-nt, 13,000 children in
the region experienced radiation doses to the thyroid of more
than 200 roentgen equivalents. (This means they received at least
twice the maximum reconnnended dose for nuclear industry workers
for an entire year.) Up to 4,000 of these children had doses as
high as 2,000 roentgen equivalents. Because iodine col. lects
in the thyroid gland, these childr-have developed chronic inflammation
of the thyroid. Although the inflammation itself produces no symptoms,
it has started to give rise to a wave of cases of thyroid cancer.

Repair work begins. The Geiger Counters went off the End of the
Scale

The numbers speak for themselves. Data gathered by the Kiev
researcher Mykola D. Tronko and his colleagues indicate that between
1981 and 1985 before the accident-the number of thyroid cancer
cases in Ukraine was about five a year. Within five years of the
disaster the number had grown to 22 cases a year, and from 1992
to 1995 it reached an average of 43 cases a year. From 1986 to
the end of 1995, 589 cases of thyroid cancer were recorded in
children and adolescents. (In Belarus the number is even higher.)
Ukraine's overall rate of thyroid cancer among children has increased
about 10-fold from pre-accident levels and is now more than four
cases per million. Cancer of the thyroid metastasizes readily,
although if caught early enough it can be treated by removing
the thyroid gland. Patients must then receive lifelong treatment
with supplemental thyroid hormones. Other research by Ukrainian
and Israeli scientists has found that one in every three liquidators-primarily
men in their thirties-has been plagued by sexual or reproductive
disorders. The problems include impotence and sperm abnormalities.
Reductions in the fertilizing capacity of the sperm have also
been noted. The number of pregnancies with complications has been
growing among women living in the affected areas, and many youngsters
fall prey to a debilitating fear of radiation. The optimists who
predicted no longterm medical consequences from the explosion
have thus been proved egregiousIY wrong. These authorities were
principally medical officials of the former Soviet Union who were
following a script written by the political bureau of the Communist
Party's Central Committee. They also include some Western nuclear
energy specialists and military experts. It is also true that
the forecasts of "catastrophists"-some of whom predicted
well over 100,000 cancer cases-have not come to pass. Still, previous
experience with the long-term effects of radiation-much of it
derived from studies at Hiroshima and Nagasaki-suggests that the
toll will continue to rise. Cancers caused by radiation can take
many years before they become detectable, so the prospects for
the long-term health of children in the high-radiation regions
are, sadly, poor. The,hushing up of the danger from radiation
in Soviet propaganda has produced quite the opposite effects from
those intended. People live under constant stress, fearful about
their health and, especially, that of their children. This mental
trauma has given rise to a psychological syndrome comparable to
that suffered by veterans of wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Among children evacuated from the reactor zone, there has been
a 10to 15-fold increase in the incidence of neuropsychiatric disorders.
The catastrophe and the resulting resettlement of large populations
have also caused irreparable harm to the rich ethnic diversity
of the contaminated areas, particularly to the so-called drevly-any,
woodland people, and polisbchuks, inhabitants of the Polissya
region. Unique architectural features and other artifacts of their
spiritual and material culture have been effectively lost as abandoned
towns and villages have fallen into disrepair. Much of the beautiful
landscape is now unsafe for humans.

A Victim of the Firefighting

The Ukrainian government, which is in a severe economic crisis,
is today obliged to spend more than 5 percent of its budget dealing
with the aftermath of Chornobyl. The money provides benefits such
as free housing to about three million people who have been officially
recognized as having suffered from the catastrophe, including
356,000 liquidators and 870,000 children. Ukraine has introduced
a special income tax corresponding to 12 percent of earnings to
raise the necessary revenue, but it is unclear how tong the government
can maintain benefits at current levels.

Radiation burns and vomiting accompanied the Radiation Sickness.
Emergency bone-marrow transplants were carried out on many cases.
This Firefighter recovered.

Today the Chornobyl zone is one of the most dangerously radioactive
places in the world. In the debris of the ruined reactor are tens
of thousands of metric tons of nuclear fuel with a total radioactivity
level of some 20 million curies. The radiation level in the reactor
itself, at several thousand roentgens per hour, is lethal for
any form of life. But the danger is spread far and wide. In the
30kilometer zone surrounding the reactor are about 800 hastily
created burial sites where highly radioactive waste, including
trees that absorbed radioisotopes from the atmosphere, has been
simply dumped into clay-lined pits.

Mutations in vegetation around Chernobyl

These dumps may account for the substantial contamination of
the sediments of the Dnieper River and its tributary the Pripyat,
which supply water for 30 million people. Sediments of the Pripyat
adjacent to Chornobyl contain an estimated 10,000 curies of strontium
90, 12,000 curies of cesium 137 and 2,000 curies of plutonium.
In order to prevent soluble compounds from further contaminating
water sources, the wastes must be removed to properly designed
and equipped storage facilities-facilities that do not yet exist.

General map of radioactive contamination of Europe
including Chernobyl fallout.

Chernobyl Repairs New Scientist 97

SUNLIGHT streams through cracks in the sarcophagus that is
meant to stop radioactivity leaking from the damaged nuclear reactor
at Chernobyl in Ukraine. Scientists who have ventured inside the
huge concrete box, which was hastily erected around the reactor
after it exploded in 1986, even report seeing birds flying in
and out of holes. But now the myriad cracks and holes could be
plugged. An American company, Eurotech of La Jolla in California,
has been given the go-ahead by the Ukrainian government to start
testing a new foam spray at Chernobyl in the spring. The company
says that 35 000 cubic metres of grey foam, made from silicon
elastomers that are resistant to the effects of radiation, could
be used to fill the sarcophagus and seal the hundreds of tonnes
of hazardous radioactive debris inside. The foam, called EKOR,
was developed by the Russian government's Kurchatov Institute
in Moscow with financial backing from Eurotech. According to Eurotech's
Randolph Graves, two types of foam could be used at Chernobyl:
one that is stiff and sticky and another that hardens.

When the Dust
Settles
NS 10 Oct 98 20

RADIATION-induced conditions and tumours other than thyroid
cancer have increased significantly in the former Soviet republic
of Belarus since the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in
1986, say local researchers. Many experts claim that the only
significant health effect of the explosion was to increase by
a factor of 200 the number of people contracting thyroid cancer.
There have been 900 cases since 1990 in the region affected by
fallout from Chernobyl, most of which is within Belarus. Chernobyl,
in Ukraine, is less that 20 kilometres from the Belarussian border.
An international conference on Chernobyl sponsored by the WHO
and others, held in Vienna in 1996, concluded that there was "no
consistent, attributable increase ... either in the rate of leukaemia
or in ttic incidence of any malignancies other than thyroid carcinomas".
This declaration deprived Belarus of much of the international
aid it had hoped for. But Rose Goncharova of the Institute of
Genetics and Cytology at the Academy of Science in Minsk, the
capital of Belarus, has reanalysed data collected in 1996 for
a national genetic monitoring programme. She found that since
1985, the number of reported cases of congenital malformations
in children, such as cleft palate, Down's syndrome and deformation
of limbs and organs, has increased by 83 per cent in areas heavily
contaminated by fallout from Chernobyl, by 30 per cent in mildly
contaminated regions and by 24 per cent in "clean" areas.
All these congenital conditions have been linked to radiation
damage in past research. Goncharova discounts another possible
cause, toxic chemicals, because pollution has fallen significantly
over the past 10 years. Goncharova's study is the first to quantify
what local researchers have believed for years (see "Will
it get any worse?" ( New Scientist, 9 December 1995, p 14).
A conference in Minsk in March this year challenged the conclusion
of the 1996 Vienna meeting, claiming that the Chernobyl catastrophe
had caused many malignant tumours, congenital developmental malformations
and other long-term consequences. "The existence of a serious
radiation risk ... should be admitted." And at the Vienna
conference itself, researchers from the Centre for Medical Technology
in Belarus presented a study showing an increase in a wide range
of tumours among the population living in Gomet, the most contaminated
area in Belarus, Elisabeth Cardis from the International Agency
for Research on Cancer in Paris, who presided over the session
on longterm health effects at Vienna, is sceptical of Goncharova's
conclusions, which are published in the proceedings of the Minsk
conference. "It is likely that registration [of abnormalities]
has been improving in recent years, which could lead to the observed
increases." Chris Groner

Friday, 15 December, 2000, 11:22 GMT Chernobyl shut down
for good

Chernobyl explosion in 1986 killed thousands of people Ceremonies
are taking place in Ukraine to mark the closure of the ill-fated
Chernobyl nuclear plant - more than 14 years after a reactor exploded
in the world's worst civil nuclear catastrophe.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma gave a nationwide television
address before ordering the Chernobyl control room to press a
button shutting down the last working reactor.

Shortly before closing the plant, Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko
told reporters: "Today Ukraine must understand that Chernobyl
is a big tragedy for the world."

There was confusion on Thursday in the capital Kiev as parliament
voted to postpone the closure until April 2001.

Angry Chernobyl workers staged protests as President Kuchma
took foreign dignitaries including the premiers of Russia, Belarus
and Georgia on a tour of the disaster plant.

An estimated 15,000 to 30,000 people have died as a result
of the 26 April 1986 explosion at Chernobyl.

Ukraine has for years come under international pressure to
close the Chernobyl but said it needed Western funding to provide
alternative sources of energy.

EU funding

Representatives from more than 10 countries including the United
States were attending the closing ceremony.

"For the entire world, Chernobyl stands as a negative
symbol that should have no place upon the earth," said President
Kuchma.

"I want to reaffirm once again that we've taken the only
right decision, from all points of view and first of all the moral
one," he said.

"I believe certain forces do not show common sense, but
engage in political games," the president said in response
to last minute parliamentary calls to cancel the shutdown plans.

The European Union agreed to provide a total of nearly $1bn
to help two replacement nuclear reactors in the former Soviet
republic.

Funding plans attacked

But environmentalists Greenpeace International condemned the
EU plans terming them as "utterly cynical".

Greenpeace International also said the closure of the Ukrainian
plant should be followed by shutdowns at similar plants in Russia
and Lithuania.

"We cannot afford to wait another 14
years before the remainder are shutdown," said Mr Munchmeyer.

The pressure group said three million children require treatment
as a result of the disaster.

The plant in north-west Ukraine was not only the site of the
world's worst nuclear disaster but remains arguably the most vivid
symbol of the legacy left after the Soviet Union collapsed almost
nine years ago.

The area around the power station has witnessed gross freaks
of nature in flora and fauna.

And experts say it will be unfit for human habitation for generations
to come.